1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electronic equipment enclosures, particularly, computer equipment enclosures, and more specifically to packaging and distributing hardware to mount computer equipment enclosures in a rack.
2. Description of the Related Art
A rack is a compartment that can contain a number of electronic equipment or computer equipment enclosures. Electronic equipment enclosures include, for example, disk system enclosures that are capable of receiving disk drives, and electronic components that contain electronic equipment within the enclosure, such as computer systems and redundant array of inexpensive disk (RAID) systems. Electronic components and a rack for mounting the electronic components can be selected by a user and purchased from a single source, or a user may choose electronic components with the intention of mounting them in a rack already owned by the user or a rack to be acquired from another source. In either case, rack mounting an electronic component usually requires a hardware kit which can include rails, slides, angled sheetmetal brackets, retractable cable arms, and miscellaneous hardware (e.g. screws).
In the case where the user selects a rack and electronic components at the same time, it is desirable to install as much mounting hardware into the rack as possible to decrease the amount of additional packaging required to ship the hardware. Installing as much mounting hardware as possible is also desirable because it minimizes the amount of hardware that must be installed by the user. However, with many components only a limited amount of the required hardware can be pre-mounted into the rack without mounting the actual component. In this situation, all other hardware must be placed into a kit and shipped to the user with instructions that show how the hardware is to be mounted to the component and how it is to be mounted to the rack.
If the user already owns a rack, or intends to acquire a rack from a source other than the source of the electronic components, the user must purchase a rack kit in order to attach the component to the rack. In this case, none of the mounting hardware can be pre-mounted to the rack, and the rack kit must include instructions for the installation of all of the mounting hardware to both the component and the rack.
Thus, in either of the situations above, clearly presenting assembly instructions that show how the equipment is to be assembled is important as some or all of the mounting hardware is distributed to and installed by the user.
Present assembly instructions use written and pictorial directions, or provide video and/or software to explain to the user how to assemble the rack hardware. Additionally, when the rack and components are selected together, hardware kits are shipped separately from the equipment rack because the hardware cannot be installed without installing the components.